May the Nurse's Force Be With You

I've had widely varied reactions to injections: One very burly tattooed biker was terrified and shrieked and squeezed his wife's hand over a flu shot. Another time I was giving toradol IM and said "this might burn for a minute" the guy looked at me and said "Honey, I used to do heroin I think I can handle it"

I had a male patient in his late 40's who started to pace around the room, he was sweating. I asked him if he would sit down because I started to worry. He sat down, picked up his phone and called his mom. He had his mom talk him through the "shot" which ended up taking several minutes before I could even administer it!

I had a teenager once faint just from me wiping her skin with alcohol prior to me drawing blood. Her mother was asking me if that was "normal", I said apparently for her it is

When my daughter was maybe 15 or 16 I literally had to chase her around the exam room and corner her before the nurse could give her a flu shot. I was mortified. The kid finally caved and gave up after a few laps around the room.

I hang my head in shame - *I* am dreadful when getting shots, or worse still a blood draw or IV. I kicked a doc right between the legs once, and I've been known to scream, cry, shout, pull away, and dive around the bed like a maniac.

I'm terrified of needles....it's all in the mind though, because invariably it doesn't hurt!

Pokymon,I get pokes all the time,that's what some of them say!

Usually the patient is already violent and/or aggressive and that's why they are getting the shot!!

The thing that impressed me during psych inpatient rotation was folks getting IM long acting antipsychotic and it's like injecting cement, but the patient doesn't even flinch...but other patients freak out about th insulin needle...its all subjective

Have had patients so scared of needles that they would vagal and pass out every time. Actually documented on telemetry. In at least one case the patient required an rn at bedside with atropine for a simple blood draw